Sonia Gandhi, the leader of India's ruling Congress Party, has expressed "shock and deep anguish" after a crowd crossing a bridge to a temple stampeded, killing 89 people.

People by the river bank after the stampede. Credit: Reuters TV

Local media said some 500,000 people had gone to the remote Ratangarh village temple in the Madhya Pradesh district of Datia to honor the Hindu mother goddess Durga on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratra festival.